“I’m more interested in building bridges, so we can find a way home, back to compassion, back to understanding each other, and being willing to listen. It takes leadership to make building a bridge more important than being right.”
~ Jennifer Hough
Dear You:
My mother always said, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all.” But that depends on your definition of ‘nice’. If a deeper truth is hard to hear, but most certainly causes people to think and come into their hearts, is it ‘nice’? Maybe not to those whose buttons you are pushing, but, to the world at large, it is the nicest thing you can do. It’s always a beautiful thing to build a bridge back to our hearts… here’s the story from our social media page, all about building bridges…..
Watch here…
With an open heart,
xoxoxo
Jennifer
Transcript
BRIDGING DIVIDES AND MOVING FORWARD
Hi, there. It’s Jennifer! I want to talk about something I posted the other day on Facebook (Facebook.com/WideAwakening; if you haven’t liked us yet, I would love it if you would). But that is beside the point. I posted the speech that Meryl Streep made, at the Awards, and a couple of people posted that, while most people were very inspired and touched that she spoke her heart and she spoke her truth, some people were a little questioning of whether that’s the appropriate place for that kind of comment. And there were two people in the thread who joined together and who felt unincluded. If you had read their posts and their comments, you probably would have thought that they were being divisive and polarizing and judgmental and opinionated. The reason I bring this up is the way I responded. I’m very conscious, especially these days, with so many having opinions and being so divided, I’m very conscious of the way I respond, if I respond at all. Because, you see, the reason why anyone would respond that way is because they feel not included, they feel unheard, they feel as though what they have to say doesn’t matter. You’ll see it in your children; sometimes they’ll just be contrary because they feel unheard, or not listened to… even though it’s not really their opinion. They’re really standing up for their right to feel what they feel, and as soon as they feel heard, and as soon as they feel like someone actually cares about what they have to say, it’s interesting how bridges start to be able to be built.
My comment back then was, “I’m so sorry that you don’t feel included in my post; that certainly, absolutely was not the intent. I just loved how Meryl Streep was actually opening up her heart, and speaking something that was really paining her, and asking people to also open up their hearts. And I’m sure that’s where we can build a bridge, because I’m sure opening up your heart is something you’d love to do too.” And then, I also said, “How could we have posted this in a way, and I’m asking myself this same question, that you didn’t feel unincluded?” So, the point was, for me, that I’m not really interested in posting things from righteousness, or things that make people feel polarized. I’m not actually interested in saying words like that, or speaking from that position. The reason is, I’m more interested in building bridges, so we can find a way home, back to compassion, back to understanding each other, being willing to listen. It takes a little bit of leadership, my friends; it takes a little bit of stepping out of our own opinions about things. Opinions are just wonderful; disguised judgments that keep other people away. When we talk, oftentimes, it’s about opinions, and the opinions either include or disclude someone else.
So, my question today for you is, how can you include? It goes back to the Saint Francis prayer, where you ask, “Am I seeking to be understood, or am I seeking to understand?” Because, when we seek to understand, what happens is that a bridge can be built. When someone else feels heard, a bridge can be built. We can do that every day; in the grocery store, or in a Facebook post. It just depends on what you’re up to. But, I just want to share that today, so that we all have the tools; where there’s a change in the frame of reference about the way that we communicate with each other. So, are you more interested in your opinion, are you more interested in fighting with other people’s opinions, or are you interested in building a bridge? That’ s my question for today!
Love you! I know many of you are in our Get Out of Your Own Way™ to Success and Abundance right now; so juicy! One of the places we play in TWA is, of course, Facebook.com/Groups/TWAPlayground. It might be The Wide Awakening, but these days I call it The WORLD Awakening.
TheWideAwakening.com/Groups/TWAPlayground; go and join with us and have the conversations we’re having about books, and Awakening movies. We’re also having amazing discussions with our Question of the Week; it’s so juicy… love it! Love it, love it, love it! Okay, guys, [Blows Kisses] all over your face, and we’ll talk again soon!
